Howdy

Interesting looking synth and pretty darn inexpensive. I really like the flexibility of a modular system...my favorite was the Oberheim Matrix-12/Xpander. You could route any control source to any control input and basically, everything had a control input. The only problem was, nothing was normalled so you always had to set up ENV1 to AMP EG (if you wanted to). This Minimodular thing looks like it has the "common" routings normalled so its easy to get started.

Heh, I LOVE that back panel...power and output...nothing else.

Very cool looking beast, let us know what you think once you get it.

In the 70's, we used the mini-moog,& moog satellite. In the 80's it was JXP-8, Oberhiem,& DX-7, in combination with samplers. Today, it can be decieving in how manufacturing company's describe the contents of their modules. "SYNTH", should not be used, if the module is a bunch of sample proms. Anybody remember "switched on Bach"?. Such glorious color. Such a wonderful range, and great keyboard solo sounds, "who's that Lady?", Yes, Floyd, "Saucer full of secrets", and of course, "Frankenstein", Edgar Winter, and Gino Vanelli, also, Gary Wright.
Sorry for the babble, now you know..I am old!
But still doin & diggin it.

Rick
:cool:

Aye Rick...how about the stuff Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Jow Zawinul, et al did back in the '70s. Certainly, they didn't care how much ROM the piano sample used...heh.

I'm a much bigger fan of using synths for musical FUNCTION versus IMITATION of "real" instruments. So I'm with you on he sample playback thingy.

Heh...let's just call those things "tone modules".

Whats good about samplers is that you can sample modular analog synth's heh heh heh...:-)

You can sample the SOUND but you can't sample the FUNCTION. Not can you sample the OPERATOR.

Something that maybe of interest, or at least caught my eye is the analog solutions tri-tone 24 mini modular. Im thinking of getting one... What makes it unique is its 3 osc not unlike the mini you know what(though I doubt it sounds the same). http://www.analogsolutions.com

The evenfall also looks beutiful...I'd just love one of those as well...Come to think of it I'd love 2 of those:-)

Ive got to say, Ive always shrugged off analog with digital models coming so close...but I just picked up a doepfer ms 404..a very simple 1 osc deal, and now its some gateway drug. Since then Ive been on ebay pissing away my savings Yeee Hawwwww! The sampler is cool, because I can make certain sounds and sample them to use as percussion.

I'm a fan of analog synths. In my studio, there are a Waldorf Pulse, SynthTech MOTM, and an Alesis A6.

I used to have a Nord Modular, but I hated the computer interface... I suppose I got spoiled by the MOTM. It was traded for a Waldorf Microwave IIXT.

Of course, that's not to say I don't have a fondness for other sythesis toys: there's a sampler and a pair of ROMpler drum machines all competing for attention.

And yes, that Nike commercial was sweet.

Nate, you were talking about the MODULATOR?

Any MS 20-fans out there?

Hi!
Now I am real analog fan!
I started out with a virtual analog JP 8000, which I still use for pads, strings and subbasses. But real analog bass cannot be emulated. Especially if you run it through a H&K Tubefactor or mic your Marshall.
I love the Roland Stuff, owning the SH2000 and SH02 and I`ve got an Yamaha CS-01, A nasty little strap-on beast wonderful for leads.
The only problem is: once you buy one old synth, you want MORE!
Cheers,
Stefan

I loved the old Juno 106. :(

I like the Nord Lead though, and The Virus is a really cool plug-in.

I used to own an ARP Avatar, still have the stand lol! The bass that came out of that tracking piece of shit was awesome.

regards,

audiokid

So, has anyone played with the Andromeda? That would be a perfect compliment to my mks 80 super jupiter and micro Q.

Oh man Chris, that thing's the Ouija board of guitar synths.

I was in a friend's car the other day and he was listening to the most recent Pat Metheny album. Is Pat STILL playing the GR300? He had that EXACT sound.

Originally posted by mr. rob:
So, has anyone played with the Andromeda?
As I mentioned, I have. Do you have any specific questions?

I played the Andromeda at GC when it first came out. It is not a traditional analog synth. It might be good for pattern dance music, but you can't get it to do smooth filter sweeps or frequency sweeps (lo to hi). It seems to suffer from low MIDI resolution and lag. I was not impressed. So I bought a Synthesizers.com modular. I got it last week and haven't been out of my house yet. Ok, that's a lie, but it is great fun. The sounds are unachievable on anything else. If you want real analog and not digital/analog like the Alesis, this is the only way to go. I got a 2 osc with all the bells and whistles like ring mods and sample/hold with a 5 octave walnut enclosue kb for $2500. And it is just begging to be expanded.

That thing is awesome looking. Looks like it should come with a free lab coat or something.

Heh, can you route an EG to the Van de Graf generator?

I take it the sound is as huge as the unit itself.

Originally posted by Bear's Gone Fission:

BTW, any hardcore samplers out there catch that Nike comercial with all the basketball court noises? I was pretty impressed with the job they did on utilizing the sounds. That's the power of straight samplers, to harness what isn't inherently musical and bring it into the fold. Damn, I want some toys to play with again. :)
da Bear
i wonder where does the sound of this nike ad come from, it sounds a lot like "happiness in slavery" by nine inch nails, same rythm but different sounds...but i've seen (and heard) this ad only once ! i might be wrong.
hervé

yeah, i just started getting into modular synths myself. i've picked up two (final filtre & dark star chaos) from blacet research (blacet.com) and i'm working on the vco from paia. i dig em. the fact that you can plug in, say, guitar pedals at any spot in the chain. run you instruments through em. combine sounds from different companies. mods are cool. i'll be getting more.

Anybody seen that sherman filter bank?
http://www.sherman.be/fb2.htm
I'd love to get my hand on one of those. Funny, I read somehwere that Aphex Twin has like 5 korg ms 20's , a lot of the time he wont even use the oscilators, but just run his samplers and fm synths into its filters. The company I believe called frostwave has a filter thats a remake of this. But the ms 20 is sort of a poor mans arp 2600 I guess.
As for that Nike commercial, man there's whole genre's of music made off of whacky sample editing. Like Squarepushers beats, he may not use basketball sounds, but listening to his new album "go plastic" really impressed me, Autechre is realy eye opening for their sound design too.

Man analog is great but we all know FM is the big secret. Nate, if you have the inside track at Yamaha please convince them to re-release the fs1r with better control and interface:-)

Mr. Rob, man...I am with you. I just can't get excited about ANOTHER "synth" (or to use a great term I heard "ROMpler") for sound creation. The only sample-based thing that gets me going is Gigastudio, and that's only because NO LOOPING.

As far as synthesis goes, FM - thumbs up, Physical Modeling (as long as its not IMATATIVE) - big thumbs up, FM - Another thumbs up...but another "run this loop through a LOW PASS FILTER!"...hell no. Of course, this will always be great for the consumer, performer and composer market. But serious synthesis has been a tad stagnant over the years.

For the Sherman thing, I actually emailed the dude when he came out with it a few years ago. I wanted to get a multichannel one to run my TX816 through. I found out it would've been prohibitively expensive. Perhaps instead, I can get one of those Electrix (or whatever it is) dealios.

But I will pass your request for more FM stuff to the big "Y". They DID resurrect it a bit in that lail tabletop thing. I dunno the hipness factor on it though.

Wow, that would be something, with the tx 816. I imagine you have heard but guitar center/musicians friend has been blowing out the filter factories and filter queens for 99 and 79 bucks respectavely. You could set up the 816 for the price of ONE filterbank 2(better hope there's no wall warts)...the filter bank is cooler though.

Aha...excellent tip Mr. Rob. I'll have to check that out.

Make sure you check out this link also...
[[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.oakleyso…"]Oakley Sound[/]="http://www.oakleyso…"]Oakley Sound[/]
If you're into DIY, this guy sells pcb's and the hard to get parts. He also has a few ready made units. A sherman-like filterbank coming up soon, as well as a monosynth with built-in midi interface, and 3 VCO's on 2 pcb's.

Actually, I was on a mailing list with the designer of the Evenfall minimodular when he designed it. The guy behind Oakley and MOTM are also on that list. Don't have the time to read it all anymore...

And the dude that makes the Sherman's lives about 20 km from me. :cool: I could have done my endwork project for him, but I really didn't see the use in generating sound from a (digital) image... :confused: